SMOKING is more likely to kill women than men as lethal toxins in cigarettes have a stronger effect on their bodies.

Experts found that female smokers have a 25% greater chance of suffering from heart disease.

And the smoke’s more potent impact could also explain why female smokers are twice as likely to contract lung cancer from their habit as men.

Scientists from Minnesota and Johns Hopkins universities in America studied data from four million participants and found the risk for women might be even worse than the results suggest because they smoke fewer cigarettes than men.

In their report in respected medical journal The Lancet they wrote: “Women might extract a greater quantity of carcinogens and other toxins from the same number of cigarettes than men.

“This occurrence could explain why women who smoke have double the risk of lung cancer compared with their male counterparts.”

Urging health authorities to take urgent action to put people off the habit, the report warns the global situation is likely to get worse.

They wrote: “Cigarette smoking is one of the main causes of coronary heart disease worldwide and will remain so as populations that have so far been unscathed by the smoking epidemic begin to smoke to a degree previously noted only in high-income countries.

“This expectation is especially true for young women in whom the ­popularity of smoking, particularly in some low-income and middle-income countries, might be on the rise.”

“Health professionals should be encouraged to increase their efforts at promotion of smoking cessation.”